MONDAY, Jan. 17, 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- Offering brief counseling sessions to emergency room patients with alcohol problems could save U.S. hospitals about $2 billion a year, says a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study.
"Alcohol is by far the leading risk factor for injuries," study author Dr. Larry Gentilello, a professor of surgery, said in a prepared statement.
"Patients are most likely to consider changing a harmful behavior when that behavior has caused a crisis or a severe problem in their life. It appears that an injury makes patients with an alcohol problem much more responsive to counseling. If brief interventions were offered routinely to these patients nationwide, the annual net savings to hospitals and insurers could be up to $1.82 billion," Gentilello said.
His analysis concluded that brief alcohol-abuse counseling saves hospitals about $330 per patient by reducing the risk that the patient will return to the emergency room or trauma center over the following three years. For every dollar spent on counseling injured patients with alcohol problems, hospitals can expect to save $3.81 in costs, the study said.
The study appears in the online issue of the Annals of Surgery.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about alcohol abuse.
